Photographing the Sun with a D70s

In a few days, I will be photographing a solar eclipse's progress taking
successive shots of the sun being partially eclipsed before and after
totality. The filter is removed from the camera while the sun is totally
eclipsed.

For practice, I've been photographing the full day sun with various manual
settings using a Nikon D70s, CPU(D) lens, and a Black Mylar filter. I did
get a few proper shots with the sun totally orange without any orange rays
extruding from the sun, but most of the shots of the sun are blown out white
with a thin yellow glow at the edge of the sun.

Does anyone have any advice as to what shutter speed, aperture, and ISO
would be best to use when the sun is partially eclipsed? I'm running out of
time to experiment, and an overcast of clouds can show up at home in the
USA, or in Libya.

Robert

Bracket it to Hell, and use the lowest ISO you can.
Try this website:
http://www.mreclipse.com/Totality/TotalityCh12-1.html
The sun is still the same brightness even if part of it is
covered up. BTW; Look through the black mylar (highly unsafe) at your
peril. The only suitable materials a
Astronomical mylar filters available from various sources, the best
being Baader Solar Film,
http://www.baader-planetarium.de/zub...lar.htm#asolar

chrome or stainless coated glass filters from companies like Thousand
Oaks Optical or no#14 welder's glass, though that materials is
optically useless for photography.

"RichA" wrote in message
oups.com...
Bracket it to Hell, and use the lowest ISO you can.
Try this website:
http://www.mreclipse.com/Totality/TotalityCh12-1.html
The sun is still the same brightness even if part of it is
covered up. BTW; Look through the black mylar (highly unsafe) at your
peril. The only suitable materials a
Astronomical mylar filters available from various sources, the best
being Baader Solar Film,
http://www.baader-planetarium.de/zub...lar.htm#asolar

chrome or stainless coated glass filters from companies like Thousand
Oaks Optical or no#14 welder's glass, though that materials is
optically useless for photography.



RichA,

Thanks for the info!

The filter I have been using is a 67mm black mylar screw on filter from a
local company named "Hands On Filters" that sells glass filters mostly for
telescopes. I'll check out "Thousand Oaks Solar Film" for a stainless
coated glass filter. May be they can ship it express.

I have glass welder goggles that I have used for other eclipses that worked
quite well for viewing, but as you say they were not any good for a camera
filter.

Robert

Robert wrote:

The filter I have been using is a 67mm black mylar screw on filter from a
local company named "Hands On Filters" that sells glass filters mostly for
telescopes. I'll check out "Thousand Oaks Solar Film" for a stainless
coated glass filter. May be they can ship it express.

Once I used an exposed and developed black&white film as a filter -
I think the following photo was taken using this setup

http://www.meduna.org/albums/Nature/...tmenie_en.html

Of course, this was no DSLR and I am no pro (actually the
camera was on a mini-tripod in my sleeping room ) - for
making a 67mm one would need an x-ray film or something
like that.

I have glass welder goggles that I have used for other eclipses that worked
quite well for viewing, but as you say they were not any good for a camera
filter.

Yup.

Regards
--
Stano

"Robert" wrote in message
...

In a few days, I will be photographing a solar eclipse's progress taking
successive shots of the sun being partially eclipsed before and after
totality. The filter is removed from the camera while the sun is totally
eclipsed.
...
Does anyone have any advice as to what shutter speed, aperture, and ISO
would be best to use when the sun is partially eclipsed? I'm running out
of
time to experiment, and an overcast of clouds can show up at home in the
USA, or in Libya.

Robert

Hi Robert.

FYI, some of my solar stuff:

Total eclipse, slr+ colour transparency film:
http://faxmentis.org/html/science35.html

Partial eclipse, digital P&S:
http://faxmentis.org/html/eclipse03a.html

Transit of Mercury, slr + 100ASA print film:
http://faxmentis.org/html/science36.html

Transit of Venus, both slr + colour transparency film and Sony Mavica:
http://faxmentis.org/html/transit3.html

Filters used:
1000 Oaks - silver colour image
Baader mylar film - orange image.
I wouldn't consider using any filter not *specifically* designed for solar
use. You can't see UV.


Exposu
TTL meter works fine, but bracket like crazy.
Sunspots (if present) should be dead-easy to capture.

Index to lots more astro stuff:
http://faxmentis.org/html/science.html#index

....and to stay on topic for the group:
Many of the shots linked to in the above index were taken with a Pentax
*1stDS.
I'm busting to try out my Nikon D50 on some similar astro targets.

--
Jeff R.

In addition to the rest of the info people have supplied, the D70
series has a bug which creates a blown-out band that stretches to the
edge of the frame if you shoot directly into the sun at shutter speeds
above 1/1000 sec. Keep the speed under 1/1000 and you'll struggle with
controlling the light but you won't get that band...

-=-Joe


In article , Robert
wrote:

In a few days, I will be photographing a solar eclipse's progress taking
successive shots of the sun being partially eclipsed before and after
totality. The filter is removed from the camera while the sun is totally
eclipsed.

For practice, I've been photographing the full day sun with various manual
settings using a Nikon D70s, CPU(D) lens, and a Black Mylar filter. I did
get a few proper shots with the sun totally orange without any orange rays
extruding from the sun, but most of the shots of the sun are blown out white
with a thin yellow glow at the edge of the sun.

Does anyone have any advice as to what shutter speed, aperture, and ISO
would be best to use when the sun is partially eclipsed? I'm running out of
time to experiment, and an overcast of clouds can show up at home in the
USA, or in Libya.

Robert

On Wed, 22 Mar 2006 02:34:19 -0500, "Robert"
wrote:


"RichA" wrote in message
roups.com...
Bracket it to Hell, and use the lowest ISO you can.
Try this website:
http://www.mreclipse.com/Totality/TotalityCh12-1.html
The sun is still the same brightness even if part of it is
covered up. BTW; Look through the black mylar (highly unsafe) at your
peril. The only suitable materials a
Astronomical mylar filters available from various sources, the best
being Baader Solar Film,
http://www.baader-planetarium.de/zub...lar.htm#asolar

chrome or stainless coated glass filters from companies like Thousand
Oaks Optical or no#14 welder's glass, though that materials is
optically useless for photography.



RichA,

Thanks for the info!

The filter I have been using is a 67mm black mylar screw on filter from a
local company named "Hands On Filters" that sells glass filters mostly for
telescopes. I'll check out "Thousand Oaks Solar Film" for a stainless
coated glass filter. May be they can ship it express.

I have glass welder goggles that I have used for other eclipses that worked
quite well for viewing, but as you say they were not any good for a camera
filter.

Robert


If they're selling it is a solar filter material then I assume it
safe, no company would risk the lawsuits otherwise. Thousand Oaks
and Astro-Physics (USA) both sell material specifically for
photography that is lighter than the visual stuff, so you can't view
through it, but even the normal density material will allow exposure
times of 1/250th of a second or better so there is no need to shoot
without the filter except at totality or near totality and ONLY when
the eclipse is complete and not annular (an annular eclipse is where
the Moon only covers the center of the Sun leaving an exposed ring,
this is where the Moon is closer to Earth).
-Rich

In message ,
"Jeff R" wrote:

I wouldn't consider using any filter not *specifically* designed for solar
use. You can't see UV.

Neutral density doesn't block IR very well, either.
--


John P Sheehy

Well, today at noon I made several shots of the full sun with a clear sky
with good results. The pro camera man going on the eclipse tour said I
finally got it right. The sun in the photo was a nice round circle filled
with an orange color about an inch in diameter. The background sky all
black.

The camera settings of the shots were as follows:

Camera D70s
Black Mylar Filter
ISO = 200
Shutter Speed 1000
Aperture 4.5
Full Zoom in on the sun
Manual focus
Time of day 12:45 PM

Tomorrow we leave for Libya, and will be shooting the partial eclipse views
of the sun using the same settings. When the sun is totally eclipsed, the
filter will be removed and different camera settings used.

Robert


"Eager" wrote in message
...

In addition to the rest of the info people have supplied, the D70
series has a bug which creates a blown-out band that stretches to the
edge of the frame if you shoot directly into the sun at shutter speeds
above 1/1000 sec. Keep the speed under 1/1000 and you'll struggle with
controlling the light but you won't get that band...

-=-Joe


In article , Robert
wrote:

In a few days, I will be photographing a solar eclipse's progress taking
successive shots of the sun being partially eclipsed before and after
totality. The filter is removed from the camera while the sun is totally
eclipsed.

For practice, I've been photographing the full day sun with various
manual
settings using a Nikon D70s, CPU(D) lens, and a Black Mylar filter. I
did
get a few proper shots with the sun totally orange without any orange
rays
extruding from the sun, but most of the shots of the sun are blown out
white
with a thin yellow glow at the edge of the sun.

Does anyone have any advice as to what shutter speed, aperture, and ISO
would be best to use when the sun is partially eclipsed? I'm running out
of
time to experiment, and an overcast of clouds can show up at home in the
USA, or in Libya.

Robert

"Robert" wrote in message
...

In a few days, I will be photographing a solar eclipse's progress taking
successive shots of the sun being partially eclipsed before and after
totality. The filter is removed from the camera while the sun is totally
eclipsed.

For practice, I've been photographing the full day sun with various manual
settings using a Nikon D70s, CPU(D) lens, and a Black Mylar filter. I
did get a few proper shots with the sun totally orange without any orange
rays extruding from the sun, but most of the shots of the sun are blown
out white with a thin yellow glow at the edge of the sun.

Does anyone have any advice as to what shutter speed, aperture, and ISO
would be best to use when the sun is partially eclipsed? I'm running out
of time to experiment, and an overcast of clouds can show up at home in
the USA, or in Libya.

Robert
Here's one tip: The only total solar eclipse I shot I almost missed. When
it finally went total I was just looking at it with my mouth hanging open
until my friend got my attention and I started shooting. So, aside from the
technical aspect, keep your wits.